How to Prevent Ransomware from Affecting Businesses

Posted by onJune 22, 2019| Featured

A recent ransomware attack on Baltimore has affected city infrastructure such as hospitals, airports, and ATMs according to the Baltimore Sun. Yet the effects of ransomware are not limited to city infrastructure. Ransomware can affect everything from personal computers to IoT devices. This means that access to the software’s victim’s data is blocked unless a ransom is paid. That’s why learning about how to prevent ransomware attacks before they occur can be so important.

Why You Need to Know How to Prevent Ransomware

If infected devices store critical information or are used in critical ways, the effects of ransomware can be devastating. This is especially true if the information on the devices isn’t backed up elsewhere. Learning how to prevent ransomware is, therefore, critical for mitigating the loss of important information.

The recent attack on Baltimore is one example of a devastating ransomware attack. A form of RobbinHood ransomware infected the city government’s computers and infected its files. While police, emergency medical, and fire services continued to function, services used to do tasks like pay water bills, purchase homes, and city voicemail were unavailable according to the New York Times.

With Ransomware able to reap such havoc upon cities, it’s no
wonder it can do the same to businesses. Two years ago, WannaCry ransomware was so
widespread that it reached even major companies like Boeing months after the
initial attack according to the Chicago
Tribune.

What are the costs of ransomware?

Like the impacts of ransomware, the costs of ransomware vary widely but can be devastating. The Baltimore attack, for example, will cost the city over $18 million according to Gizmodo. Eight million dollars of that was said to be lost because of revenue that the city could not process. Yet some of the cost cannot be quantified within a monetary value. For example, the city’s 10,000 needed restored login credentials.

It’s not a stretch to say that some similarimpacts could be felt by businesses. Significant loss of revenue is not something many small businesses can afford. A ransomware attack could well be enough to put a small company out of business. Businesses could also face the loss of time that could be used to generate revenue by potentially needing to spend that time restoring login credentials to all of their employees and recovering lost information.

Learn How to Prevent Ransomware

When it comes to protecting businesses from ransomware,
services like Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), Intrusion Prevention Systems
(IPS), and Network Access Control (NAC) are here to help.

IDS searches network traffic to see if there are signs that
attackers are infiltrating a network. This can help detect signs of attempts to
send ransomware. This data is then used by IPS to block network traffic to
known security threats. These threats can include means of spreading
ransomware. NAC contributes by filtering who has access to the network. If a
NAC has network segmentation, then the spread of ransomware can be limited by keeping
the devices on a network isolated from one another.

How Impulse Can Help

Impulse’s SafeConnect NAC has network segmentation that can help limit the spread of ransomware laterally across a network. Learn more about SafeConnect NAC from Impulse’s products page.